TOT head ‘fails evaluation’
Monchai has ‘90 days to improve or resign’
TOT president Monchai Noosong has failed his first performance evaluation by the board after taking up the top position at the state telecom enterprise nine months ago, according to a highly placed source.
Mr Monchai has failed to cut costs and transform the business to generate new streams of revenue, two critical points considered in the assessment of his performance, a TOT board director who asked not to be named told the Bangkok Post.
The evaluation was carried out by the board of TOT on a six-month basis, said the director.
“Mr Monchai has been put on a 90-day performance improvement plan, until Nov 30,” said the director. If he fails to bring his performance to an acceptable level, Mr Monchai will have to resign from his job.
Mr Monchai was not available for comment.
In the event of Mr Monchai’s resignation, a member of TOT’s board of directors will be appointed to serve as deputy president until a new president is recruited.
Mr Monchai became president of the state telecom on Nov 16 last year after nearly a year-long selection process. He succeeded Yongyuth Wattanasin, who resigned in August 2014.
The source stressed that the TOT board had set a target of reducing the cost of procurement processes by at least 20% this year for Mr Monchai, but TOT could only achieve a 1% reduction under his management.
In addition, Mr Monchai failed to create new business models to generate sustainable revenue streams and had not restructured its organisation and business in order to survive in the post-concession era, the source said.
TOT is operating under a so-called “survival plan” ordered by the State Enterprises Policy Commission (superboard).
TOT posted a loss of 480 million baht on consolidated revenue of 12.9 billion in the first half of 2016.
The state enterprise expects to face a loss of 4 billion baht this year, a reversal of its earlier prediction of a profit of 4 billion, due mainly to its early retirement plan and a delay in partnership deals with mobile leader Advanced Info Service (AIS).
TOT earlier projected a gain of 9.5 billion baht in additional revenue from its deal with AIS to provide mobile service on TOT’s 2100-megahertz spectrum.
TOT’s board approved AIS as a strategic partner to provide mobile service on the spectrum in November last year, but a memorandum of understanding has yet to be signed.
Mr Monchai was one of six candidates for the position of president during the recruitment process in 2015.
The other five were Arnont Tuptiang, who was TOT president during the Abhisit Vejjajiva government; Teeravit Charuwat, president during the Yingluck Shinawatra government; Jesada Sivaraks, secretary to the vice-chairman of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission; Pol Lt Col Piyawit Wongsawat, former adviser to the ICT minister; and Somprot Sarakoses, chief executive of VGM Corporation.